Honeymoon Dinners in Singapore

We have 2 nights in Singapore on our Honeymoon, both are stopovers before going to and coming home from Bali. The first night will be the first night of our Honeymoon, we're coming from NYC and while we will be jetlagged, we still want something spectacular for our first night.

We are looking for something memorable in both food and setting. We would like to stay in the Asian food realm, but if there is something that we must must eat we will do that as well.

We were looking at:

Iggy's, Andre, fiftythree and Blu, but I am open to all suggestions.

What would be the best for our first night and last night's dinner. As this is our Honeymoon price matters less than over all memorable evening.

Thanks, I definitely won't go to fiftythree then ;) Ku De Ta sounds great for ambiance but i'm noticing the food there isn't so good. Is it still worth it to go? Is the view and ambiance worth the less than stellar food?

Eat elsewhere nearby, maybe London Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton's newish Pollen at the Gardens by the Bay (book ahead!), *then* come to Ku De Ta for its drinks, music, and absolutely spectacular view. Nothing you'd seen anywhere in the world will prepare you for the sights here :-)

i've just had a very good meal at jaan (now under julien royer); personally, i'd say that the general quality of the food is about 90-95% percent of what andre offered when he was helming jaan, and the best dishes just as stunning.

some photos of my recent meal to whet your appetite :)

1. lentil crisps with chestnut puree, mashed potato croquettes with cantal cheese and tarragon cream, chicken skin, apple with smoked duck - the "skins" are an andre "creation". still good though. the potato-cantal croquette was delicious - very moreish.

2. mushroom sabayon, with mushroom tea, walnuts, and puffed rice - i'm a big fan of foamy textures. this was like a comforting bowl of soup, with much more interesting textures.

3. cannelloni of new caledonian obsiblue prawn and avocado, with chorizo iberico, black mushrooms, and oscietra caviar - the avocado was the "skin" of the cannelloni. very sweet prawns. strangely, the chorizo seemed a bit overwhelmed by everything else (there were only two small cubes of it buried in the cannelloni), but otherwise a good balance of tastes and textures.

5. bread and butter crusted wild-caught langoustine, with fennel, grapefruit, elderflower espuma, and burnt onion broth - this was absolutely delicious. very sweet langoustine, and the bread and butter crust very umami (not much taste at first, then suddenly there's a flavour explosion in your mouth).

7. linee caught atlantic cod, with crayfish, girolles, and beurre noisette broth - my favourite dish of the night. fish that is barely cooked through (my favourite way of cooked fish preparation) + burnt butter! i think i mopped up the sauce with bread. heh.

8. hay-roasted bresse pigeon breast, with confit of leg, smoked aubergine, pickled cherry, buckwheat, jus d'abats - very pink breast. lovely texture, not tough at the slightest. liked the robustness that the buckwheat imparts to the dish. the pickled cherry sauce worked very well with the meat.

9. lemon curd, basil sorbet, and thyme espuma - heaven in a cup. second-favourite dish of the night. i'm going to try making this - the flavours gel so well!

BTW, your #4 - " i never did figure out what fairy rings are". Those would refer to a specie of edible mushrooms used in the dish. There are several types of mushrooms which will grow in a circular pattern on the forest floor, and this will be called a "fairy ring" :-)http://www.acanadianfoodie.com/2011/0...

It must have been pretty recent, we were at the Shangri-La Hotel last Tuesday (July 17) and a hotel staff we spoke to the main reception thought the restaurant was still open. So, we actually took the elevator to the top floor where it's located, and was taken aback that the entire dining space was devoid of any activitiy - eventhough the furniture were all still there. Another hotel personnel up there came along & informed us that Blu's shut down and the hotel will be revamping that space. The Blu Bar was still operating. Pity, I loved that place:http://www.shangri-la.com/singapore/s...

P.S. - Still remembered when Blu was newly-opened back in 1999 thereabouts. Touting modern-Californian cuisine, it even offered the legendary Screaming Eagle Cabernet at a mind-boggling S$675 (> USD500) a glass then! Oh, but those beautiful statuesque hostesses in their long, slinky black gowns, shimmering with sequins - now *that* was memorable.

Thanks for all the great feed back. Would doing iggy's and Andre be overkill? I don't want to do any restaurants that have international outposts. I'm looking for singapore specific stuff. Ku De Ta sounds great for a drink.

Well, it would be interesting if you can try both, make a comparison and share with us what you think.

Andre Chiang's very talented, so the restaurant's pretty much a superchef-driven set-up.

Iggy's, on the other hand, does not depend on any particular celebrity chef, but a team of trained, anonymous young chefs whose talent would be to replicate dishes from famous restaurants around the globe (think Fat Duck, El Bulli, WD-50, Noma), perfect the whole thing & then present a slick dining experience to the diner.

Same sentiments here wrt Iggy's. But you *have* to give it to Ignatius Chan: he managed to tap into the Singapore psyche: create an expensive, see-and-be-seen space, make sure the city's movers & shakers become regulars, serve some decent food, provide bended-knee service and, voila, you've got the city's most feted, recognizable brand-name in dining. Iggy's faithful following include some of the most influential F&B personalities in Singapore, which guaranteed it high ratings in the Miele Guide, San Pellegrino world's best restaurants guide, etc.

Well, Ignatius Chan has been in the Singapore dining scene for decades - I remembered him as being perhaps Singapore's best sommelier at the now-defunct Ristorante Bologna back in the 1980s.

My sisters, who loved dining out with their spouses in 3- or 2-Michelin-star restaurants in HK, simply loved Iggy's - not at its current location at the Hilton, but the old one in the Regent Hotel. I felt the same as you all with regards to Iggy's, but my sisters and their husbands seemed to think that Iggy's offered them the BEST dining experience in Singapore, and that the food was even better than what they had back in HK, e.g. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Caprice, Bo Innovation, Amber, etc. I'm still scratching my head wondering why. Maybe we took things too much for granted here in Singapore! I personally thought the service was more polished in HK than here in Singapore. And the old Iggy's seemed cramped, like dining in a small dark room.

Old Iggy's was indeed good when they started at Regent Hotel. I was a regular back then. l recall the price was just slightly above SGD100. But standard just deteriorated in the last few years while their price escalated at the same time. I hardly go back there anymore.